CAN'T HAVE A CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS WHEN THERE IS ONLY ONE:

As the war in Ukraine rages on, a parallel war is underway within the Orthodox Church. Not much has been said about this religious conflict in the mainstream media, even though it is playing a crucial role in the military conflict. And it's a problem affecting not merely Eastern Europe, but Australia too.

I have adapted my title from a sober judgment in a recent Facebook post by a leading Greek Orthodox theologian, Professor Petros Vassiliadis of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki -- in it he wrote, "Orthodoxie c'est fini" (French for "Orthodoxy is finished"). This was his reaction to a sermon given by Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. The occasion was (ironically) the Sunday of Forgiveness, 6 March, the last Sunday before Lent, and the location was the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow. As terrified civilians in Ukraine were fleeing Russian bombs, in Moscow Patriarch Kirill gave what has now become an infamous statement of support for President Vladimir Putin's invasion. And what was His Holiness' justification for this "holy" war? "The Gay Pride parade"! Ukraine has sold its soul to Western libertinism, he stated, as is shown by its endorsement of homosexuality. The fight, therefore, is not only against NATO, but against darker, diabolical powers: "We have entered into a struggle that has not a physical, but a metaphysical significance."

The real aggressor, in Kirill's view, is not Putin or the Russian people, but the decadent West, which has sought to divide Ukraine and Russia, even though the two "came from one Kievan baptismal font, are united by common faith, common saints and prayers, and share a common historical fate" (quoting this time from a letter he wrote to the Acting General Secretary of the World Council of Churches). And standing in the way of this irredentist dream of the "Russian World" (Russkiy mir), where Ukraine is reunited with the motherland, is none other than the very leader of the Orthodox Church, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, after the latter granted "autocephaly" (independence) to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in 2019.

I've long suspected Kirill to be deranged, but he is now also doubtless dangerous -- dangerous because he is backing his even more deranged dictator, who may soon begin using chemical weapons (having built up some experience in their use in Salisbury and Syria). A small minority of Russian clergy has bravely turned against their leader, and much of the Orthodox communion worldwide (with the disgraceful exception of the churches of Serbia, Bulgaria, and Jerusalem) has condemned the invasion and Kirill's part in it.

But what has gone largely unnoticed by Kirill's critics -- whether they be Orthodox or not -- is the way in which the Orthodox Church, in both its theological systems and its organisational structure, had enabled the Ukraine war.

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